25 December,2010 06:49 AM IST | | Bipin Kumar Singh
Air services resume after cold weather chaos, but people forced to spend hours at airport waiting for flight to get nod
AIR services at Heathrow may have resumed after days of disruption due to cold weather but inconvenience to thousands of passengers remains a reality at the airport.
Flyers have been compelled to cool their heels for hours on end and eat costly foodstuff when they grow hungry as airlines are not sure when they are going to fly.
Passengers had to wait more than 24 hours for their flights which were getting delayed due to cold weather
"I had to wait for almost 24 hours at Heathrow.
The airline was extending the departure time every hour; even the airline was not sure when the flight would depart as there was no clear indication from the airport related to the departure," said Manish Kumar, a Pune resident who arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in the city on Tuesday.
As snow and ice caused havoc this week, schedules at Heathrow airport in London were disrupted for days.
"We had limited options and the foodstuff at the airport was more costly than medicines," said Kumar.
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"I am thankful that I finally landed and came home safely. Most of the passengers who were tired slept in the lounge."
Ritesh Mishra (29), a software engineer from Virar who planned to celebrate Christmas and New Year with his close friends in London, cancelled the overseas trip and decided to celebrate in Goa instead.
"We thought our London trip would be a sweet memory, but it did not happen," said Mishra. "Anyway, we have now planned to celebrate the day and the New Year in Goa."
As happened with Mishra, millions of travellers' Christmas plans were ruined. "We cancelled almost 40 per cent of the total bookings because of this.
Most of the passengers planned to celebrate their Christmas in London, but as there was no response from the airline we cancelled the tickets," said Devang Sanghvi of Venus Holidays.
The mess at Heathrow reached a level where British Prime Minister David Cameron had to issue a statement to calm the mood of the stranded passengers: "I'm frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it's taking so long for the situation to improve."
Even international airlines criticised the airport operator BAA for not handling the situation properly.
Now the situation at Heathrow is far better than last week, when there was complete chaos regarding travel across the UK as the London airport was one of the biggest casualties, being forced to cancel two-thirds of flights.
Most of the airlines operating from India also cancelled their scheduled flights to London in this period.
Now, Paris
Part of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris was evacuated yesterday due to the accumulation of snow on the roof, and hundreds of flights were canceled because of a shortage of de-icing fluid, authorities said.
Nearly 2,000 passengers were moved from Terminal 2E to other parts of the airport, authorities said, calling the measure "preventative."
French authorities earlier asked airlines to cancel half their morning flights to and from the airport because
de-icing fluid was running low.
